Biology of Marine Systems at Harvard University

What we do:

Through a variety of laboratory, field, and model based studies Harvard faculty and students investigate unique aspects of the biology of marine organisms, and explore their relationships with the chemical and physical environment of the ocean, from the surface to the deep ocean floor and its sedimentary layers. These organisms are uniquely interesting in their own right, and research in recent decades has demonstrated the significance of marine organisms, from the smallest microbes to the largest mammals, in Earth’s biogeochemical cycles.

OEB's programs in this area include ecology and physiological genomics, biogeography, and systematics as well as fluid dynamics of life in the marine environments. Organisms and habitats studied include microbial populations in deep-sea hydrothermal vent communities, plankton in oceanic and coastal waters, invertebrates in coastal and near-shore bottom habitats, and wide ranging marine vertebrates.

Current areas of research include:

Roles of seasonal and interannual variability in climate on marine productivity

Coupling of the nitrogen and carbon cycles in planktonic and microbial ecosystems

Reproductive biology and dispersal

Systematics, biogeography and phylogeography

Invasive and introduced species

Invertebrate-microbial symbioses, their co-evolution, physiology, and population biogeography